This food was no ordinary food; it all contained exceptionally massive energy.
In truth, the body of a Mighty One possessed no such thing as "fat." Every single one of their cells could harbor enormous energy; fat cells, designed merely to store energy, were far too primitive for a Mighty One.
Robos going from a handsome lad to a giant fatty was actually the result of being stuffed round by sheer, immense energy. Every cell was loaded past its capacity, to the point that his body had spontaneously divided to produce even more cells just to hold the overflow.
He couldn't move.
It was because the energy was too vast.
Worse yet, this energy was not under his control—authority over it remained in Little Nora's hands. If Little Nora wished to detonate it, Robos would be blown to bits in an instant.
Only at this moment did he realize he had underestimated his foe.
Little Nora appeared far too harmless, and its moves looked far too delightful—yet the killing intent hidden within such delight was utterly terrifying.
The food all around was vivid and magnificent in color, sweet and tantalizing in scent, and tasted incomparably delicious.
Yet it turned a person into a bloated giant, rendered one unable to take half a step, and completely stripped away any capacity for self-care.
"Quack quack! You lose!"
Holding an ice cream cone while perched atop a cut of meat, Little Nora drifted slowly out from the mountain of food, beaming at Robos.
It had deliberately quacked just to mock Robos for judging a book by its cover.
"..."
Robos's chubby face glared at Little Nora.
Over the past two days, he had considered the possibility of defeat. He had even imagined ways he might lose—perhaps crushed by energy projectiles, or slain once Little Nora revealed its true form.
After all, a duck's ancestor might well have been a phoenix. What if Little Nora were actually a phoenix?
Yet never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he would lose to Little Nora like this.
The battle had only just begun.
Not even half an hour had passed!
No.
Forget half an hour—in truth, less than five minutes had gone by before he was already defeated.
"If you don't concede, I'll just have to feed you even more delicious treats," Little Nora said with a cheerful chuckle upon seeing Robos still glaring defiantly.
Hearing that, Robos instantly shuddered and blurted, "I... I concede!"
"Yay! I won!" Little Nora cheered happily.
Robos, on the other hand, wore a face full of misery. This was without a doubt the most humiliating battle he had ever endured, yet it was also the one where he felt most helpless. After all, if Little Nora truly wanted to kill him, it could certainly do so.
He had been completely and utterly outmatched, and by moves that were disgustingly bizarre. What kind of opponent had he chosen?
Robos gazed up at the void and sighed deeply. At this moment, in this state, he wished he were dead.
...
...
When Robos returned to Apollo's side, Apollo stared at him with wide eyes.
Only after quite a while did he manage to speak: "Who are you? Where's my brother?"
"Brother, can you just be quiet for a minute?" Robos said miserably, almost driven to shut down entirely.
The trouble was that his face was currently so round and bloated that no one could tell he was wearing a look of misery. Apollo, sensing the deep resentment in his emotions, couldn't help but chuckle.
"Don't forget, since we lost, the Calamity Origin goes to them," Robos added in a hollow voice.
The smile vanished from Apollo's face instantly. After all their painstaking efforts to collect the Calamity Origin, they had merely paved the way for someone else in the end. It was agonizing.
Yet the two brothers exchanged a look and let out a long sigh. One had to accept defeat in a wager; backing out was simply out of the question.
Besides, Nora's side had numbers, and every one of them possessed strength on par with their own. Trying to make a run for it would be no simple task, and if they ended up getting jumped by the whole group, things would turn out even worse.
The following day, the two parties handed over the Calamity Origin.
Apollo handed the origin over to Nora. Pained as he was, he glanced at Robos beside him and nearly broke into laughter again. Suppressing a smile, he asked, "Excuse me, when will my brother be able to recover?"
"Little Nora?" Nora looked toward Little Nora, who was still busy eating.
Little Nora looked up and replied, "In seven days, he'll get diarrhea. Once he's emptied it all out, he'll be back to normal."
"Alright, thank you." Hearing that, Apollo heaved an immediate sigh of relief. It would be quite troublesome if Robos remained stuck like this; after all, he currently possessed zero combat strength and could barely even move.
Little Nora recalled something and added, "Oh, right. Remember to find a big enough place. Don't go polluting the environment."
"What do you mean by that?" Robos asked hurriedly, struggling through the words.
Little Nora explained somewhat sheepishly, "Well... you might have to poop quite a lot..."
Those words caused Robos's face to darken instantly. He knew better than anyone how colossal the energy inside him was. If that energy really had to be expelled as feces, he felt he might be defecating until the end of time.
Gods above.
What kind of repulsive ability was this?!
Robos regretted choosing Little Nora as his opponent all over again.
"We'll take our leave first."
"Goodbye!"
Having grasped Little Nora's implication as well, Nora spoke up promptly.
In the next instant, looking utterly sneaky, the Aska slipped into getaway mode and vanished into the pitch-black void in the blink of an eye, leaving Apollo and Robos staring blankly where they were.
"..."
After a long while, Apollo and Robos exchanged a glance, both letting out a drawn-out sigh in unison.
Whether to continue trying to seize Calamity Origins was something they had no clues about for now. The most pressing matter was finding a sufficiently massive latrine—seven days from now, Robos might well produce the single largest turd of this entire cosmic annihilation epoch!
...
...
To Mighty Ones, seven days were hardly different from seven minutes.
At least outside of combat, time truly was worthless to a Mighty One.
After searching around, Apollo and Robos decided to handle this major life event deep within a far-flung, tucked-away twig among the endless branchings of the Tree Universe.
Apollo most considerately prepared a sit-down toilet for Robos, then decisively made himself scarce.
"From now on, whenever an opponent is named Nora, I'm just going to surrender straight away."
Robos sat on the toilet. Behind him was the boundless void, and farther still lay an endless sea of mist—a manifestation of the Tree Universe's self-protection. Beyond that was Between Being and Non-Being.
When Little Nora said seven days, it truly meant seven days.
The moment the time arrived, Robos felt his abdomen churn like a stormy sea. Then, he suddenly experienced the exhilarating rush of mortal excretion—and in a flash, the floodgates opened.
It was quite literally a torrential deluge across thousands of miles.
The entire tree branch was swiftly filled by his output. The toilet was even capable of moving forward automatically, treating him to quite the thrill of speed and passion.
Fortunately, Robos possessed the body of a divine spirit. Had this been a normal human body, with a volume of discharge so staggering, the entire person would probably have been turned inside out in an instant.
His rear end wouldn't have stood a chance.
Thereafter, he battled valiantly on this tree branch for nine full years before his body finally returned to normal.
"Finally... it's over!"
Robos slowly rose from the toilet. His tone held a touch of relief, yet strangely, a hint of reluctance as well.
He instinctively glanced back, only to freeze in sheer horror. Turning away immediately, he didn't dare look again. This branch was ruined—it was beyond saving! This was unequivocally the most repulsive place in the entire Tree Universe!
Even if beaten to death, he would never admit that everything here was his doing.
The next second, he beat a decisive retreat.
Chapter 714